by the shoreline on the kentucky side

i stand, and i remember how you

got down on your knees

as if proposing a promise,

and i remember the last time

you knelt down to caressing my thighs

as your knees dug into moist earth,

and your lips would search out

my own sacred mounds

as the vibrations of my own voice

echoed and answered love’s call

and we left fossil prints of hope

near the grimy water’s edge,

and as you spoke to the spirit of the water,

bubbled a kiss, and my name became. . . ohio.

then, we separated.

and you promised! you swore to meet me
by the special blessed place
when the time of our love was fully ripe,
you promised to meet me
where sycamores and willows
were scarred but still survived
the lashes of barbed rusting metal
snapped by gnarly hands
wielding overseers bullish whips

once you promised
but forgot me over time. . .

forsook my memory

out of convenience

like an antebellum mansion ghost

grieving in a state

of southern discomfort

being forgotten pricks me harshly

and i spurt forth issues of “whys”

that are scarred far beneath that

of a normal rejection, even moreso

than the blood that coursed thru

freedom seekers veins. . .

the very idea of being unfetter’d on purpose

was reason enough

to risk becoming lost in you,

and i run toward the hope

of being free inside your arms;

well, that’s what you led me to believe.

perhaps that is reason

why the southern soil

on the place where we kissed

is as red as my seeping heart. . .

but i guess when you got yourself finally free

that’s one promise you musta forgot.
 

© 2004 by cynth'ya lewis reed.